


Baby It's Cold...Inside?

by barelylegible



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Huddling For Warmth, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 12:30:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17488082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barelylegible/pseuds/barelylegible
Summary: My JBO Secret Santa gift for Blackflashlight, shamefully late! Her prompt words were "roadtrip, cold, inside."Jaime and Brienne arrive home in King's Landing after a stressful roadtrip, only to find that their heat has gone out!Oh no, however will they keep warm?!





	Baby It's Cold...Inside?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlackFlashlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackFlashlight/gifts).



> Just some un-betad, OOC, fluffy, domestic fun.   
> All temperatures are in Fahrenheit. Most people keep their homes around 70 or 72 year-round, 32 is freezing.

The GPS said 5 minutes until they were home, and Brienne counted every second.

“We should have just stayed home,” Brienne huffed, increasing the windshield wiper speed and leaning forward over the steering wheel. She was being careful to follow the tracks the cars before them had made in the falling snow, but the flakes were coming bigger and faster now, and visibility was low. “Don’t be ridiculous,” Jaime scolded, “we couldn’t have skipped my own brothers engagement party even if we wanted to, and he’s engaged to your best friend! Don’t tell me you’d miss something like that.”

“No, but with the weather as it is, Sansa could’ve at least given us more of a head start. I hate talking to Northerners about driving in snow, they always underestimate it and make you feel silly because ‘in the north we drive through 10 feet of snow…”

“Oh and don’t forget, they had to walk to school in it. Uphill.” Jaime added.

“Both ways!” Brienne chimed in, risking a brief glance for a bleak grin at Jaime.

Jaime reached over the console and gave her knee a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll be home soon, wench. Just a few more minutes and this roadtrip-from-hell will be over.”

Brienne snorted, not wanting to disagree lest they start bickering and she gets distracted from the road. The trip hadn’t been all bad. They’d driven up to Winterfell on Saturday morning to celebrate Tyrion & Sansa’s engagement, and the party had been a blast, as most Tyrion parties are. They’d crashed with the happy couple that night, and had intended to leave early Sunday to beat what Brienne thought looked to be a bad snow storm predicted to sweep down from the north, essentially chasing them back to King’s Landing. But Sansa has insisted they stay for brunch, then to a brewery, claiming that she can “smell snow” before it comes and that Brienne was just being overly cautious. Sansa had at least had the good grace to look sheepish as Brienne and Jaime loaded their car for the return trip under a thin, but accumulating layer of snow.

“If it makes you feel better, I’ll go ahead and get the house warmed up… with the power of modern technology!” Jaime announced, doing his best radio announcer voice. Brienne couldn't help but snort at that. When Jaime and Brienne moved in together, they had decided to live somewhere modest, somewhere that had what they needed but that they could afford without Lannister family money. They're settled on cozy-yet-spatious townhome in King's Landing, but Brienne soon learned you can take a Lannister out of the decadence of Casterly Rock, but not always the Casterly Rock decadence out of a Lannister. Jaime had insisted on completely upgrading the house’s technology, making it as “smart” as possible. Almost everything in the home, from light switches to televisions, even the refrigerator, could be controlled by voice or via their smartphones. One of Jaime's favorite home upgrades was a smart thermostat system, so they could control the temperature in different zones of the house, and in cases like this, check or change the temperature remotely. Brienne had grumbled at first about it all being too much, but eventually conceded that she was sold on the convenience of turning up the heat without leaving the bed. Plus, it had an “eco” mode that let the house cool while they were away to conserve energy.

“My gods, it got down to 55 degrees in the house today!” Jaime exclaimed, checking the thermostat app. “That eco-mode doesn’t play around. Anyway, the house should be a toasty 72 by the time we get there.” 

The snow had accumulated several inches by the time they finally arrived home. Ever practical, Brienne insisted that they gather all their luggage and make one trip into the house to avoid tracking in too much snow and mud. The snow was blowing into the car and under their collars as they gathered their things. “THIS is also why I only wanted to make one trip! So we do this nonsense  _ once _ !” Brienne groused, but Jaime only laughed. “It’ll be warmer inside, wench, and it’ll be  _ home. _ ” 

Brienne was hot and sweaty under her heavy coat by the time they hauled their bags inside, but when she went to take off her coat she still felt a chill. Jaime had turned the thermostat up, hadn’t he? When she checked, she found that it was set to 72, but the house was nearly 20 degrees colder! After a bit of bickering and investigation, they determined that the heat pump had failed. Defeated, Brienne flopped down on the couch, throwing a blanket entirely over herself, head and all, while Jaime started calling HVAC emergency numbers. Not normally one for whining (that was usually Jaime’s job), Brienne began airing her grievances to the warm underside of the blanket. 

“I’m tired… I’m cold… I’m sore from traveling… My head hurts from watching the road… and now there’s no escaping the cold… is this how they felt during the Long Night? Inescapably cold and tired?”

“Sorry to interrupt whatever you’re doing under there,” Jaime announced, tugging the blanket away to reveal Brienne’s still-scowling face, “but I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, no one can come look at it until tomorrow. With all this unexpected snow and it being Sunday, other people are in much more dire straits, and it should’ve stopped by morning anyway. The good news is, I remembered something that’s going to make this evening  _ much _ more pleasant: we have a fireplace!” Brienne blinked at him for a moment, before remembering herself. There was in fact a gas fireplace in their basement den, but they had never really used it, only decorated its mantle. “That’s good thinking, Jaime, I hadn’t thought of that. But you know it can’t heat the whole house, right? It puts out heat, but functionally it’s only a few steps above decorative.”

“That’s why I thought we could push back the couch and blow up the air mattress down there, make a little nest by the fire?” Jaime plopped down next to her on the couch, raising a suggestive eyebrow before adding “...a  _ love _ nest, perhaps?” Brienne rolled her eyes, but laughed. “I don’t know about all  _ that, _ but a nest doesn’t sound too bad. C’mon, the faster we get settled, the faster I get to sleep.”

They made short work of the air mattress, and simply hauled all of their bedding down in a bundle of sheets and pillows to outfit it. While Jaime completed his evening bathroom routine, Brienne snuggled into their makeshift bed. Being a basement it was always a little chilly even with working heat, but after a few minutes under the covers, and the gas logs crackling as merrily as they could, Brienne found she was warm enough to shed her hoodie and sweats until she was in her normal sleeping shorts and a tank. When Jaime emerged, he would see nothing more than a mop of blonde hair, two closed eyes, and a nose poking over the comforter.

“Warm enough in there?” he asked with a laugh. “Nearly, but not quite. Could you turn the fireplace up a bit more?” As she asked, Brienne opened her eyes and was pleasantly surprised to find that Jaime hadn’t bothered with fully re-dressing, and wore only his underwear as he normally would for bed. She watched him in silhouette as he bent to adjust the gas. Even in the scarce light she could enjoy the movement of the muscles across his back and through his thighs. He’d been working on his “winter coat” since the weather turned cold, letting his hair and beard grow long, and no longer trimming his chest or stomach hair like he would in the summer. Brienne made a mental note to tell him she was starting to prefer the furrier winter-Jaime.

“I hope you’re enjoying the show, wench.” Jaime said without looking at her, feeling her eyes on him.

“I hope you’re warm enough,  _ ser _ .” Brienne replied.

“Oh, I’m about to be”

Jaime stood, and for a moment, Brienne was reminded of the covers of those trashy romance novels she and her sisters would giggle over in the thrift store as children. Jaime was always devastatingly handsome, even on a bad day. But right now, bearded, nearly-nude, and bathed in dim firelight, he could’ve been the statue of a Greek god come to life. He smiled down at her warmly, smugly aware that she was looking him over. 

Brienne expected Jaime to come to his side of the bed and crawl in, but instead he knelt back down at the foot and proceeded to crawl in from the bottom.

“Jaime...what on earth…”

“I decided to take the scenic route, wench, where’s your sense of adventure? You never know what one might find down here…”

Brienne watched the Jaime-shaped-lump move toward her under the covers, realizing that he wasn’t heading toward his spot. Under the covers, he slowly crawled up towards her and over her body, commenting on and caressing his “discoveries” along the way.

“Hmm, what’s this? Ah, one lovely, freckled leg...oh good, there’s two, which can only mean...mmm yes, two lovely freckled thighs to match…”

As he continued crawling, she felt his warm breath ghost over her shorts. Brienne felt a clench in her belly and let out an involuntary giggle of surprise. Her stomach muscles drew taut in anticipation, and she had to will herself not to squirm away. Jaime settled into a straddle over her legs, face poised over her belly button as it peeked under the hem of her tank top.

“Let’s see, what do we have here...ooh I think it’s a soft, warm belly, but there’s some sort of barrier…”

Jaime used his nose to nuzzle her tank the rest of the way up her stomach and out of his way, drawing another surprised giggle from Brienne, though she suspected she knew where these games were headed.  An hour before she would’ve protested Jaime’s advances out of exhaustion, but now that she was literally  _ and _ metaphorically warming up to him, she found she didn’t mind.

Satisfied with his work on her shirt, Jaime focused his attention back to Brienne’s stomach. He gave it a few light kisses, before blowing a gust of cool air just under her rib cage, making her gasp. Brienne drug her hands up Jaime’s arms and shoulders and into his hair, and he gave a small hum of satisfaction. 

Suddenly, he pressed his open mouth firmly against the soft hollow above her belly button, and blew a raspberry as hard as he could -  _ PFFFFFFFFFFTTT. _

_ “ _ JAIME!” Brienne squealed with surprise and delight, as Jaime took another deep breath and blew another, even louder and wetter raspberry onto her stomach. Her legs were pinned between his, so she was helpless to do much more than thrash and squeal. 

Laughing, Jaime finished his journey north and came face to face with Brienne. He settled his body over hers as their laughter died down. They both quieted as Brienne brought her hands to Jaime’s face, pushing back his hair with both hands. Jaime rested his arms above Brienne’s shoulders, so that he could do the same, idly twirling a lock by her temple. Brienne thought of the stress of the day’s travels and their broken furnace, and how they all seemed so far away now. How Jaime had the ability to loosen all the tension she kept coiled around herself, and how much she loved him for it, and for his effect on her. As if he had been reading her mind, he spoke.

“Have I told you today that I love you?”

Brienne smiled. “You know, I’m not sure that you have. The day has been a bit of a blur, what with driving through a snowstorm and finding our house an icebox. Do you still love me after enduring all my grumbling today?”

“Even more so,” he said, “since it all led to this perfect opportunity to check ‘make love in front of a romantic open fire’ off my bucket list.”

Brienne laughed, slapping the side of the air mattress for effect. “Oh yes, a decorative gas fireplace and an air mattress are  _ very  _ romantic. And you’re awfully confident! How are you so sure I’m interested? I might be too tired!” she teased, flicking lightly at his nose. He snapped his teeth playfully at her finger as it passed his mouth. “Of course you’re interested, you insatiable wench.” He smiled against her mouth as he bent down to give a firm, slow kiss. Pulling back, he looked into her eyes again.

“Brienne?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“....so about that bucket list item.”

 

\--- the end ---

**Author's Note:**

> If it's still unclear, I've heard other people call a raspberry a sherbert/zerbert. It's the thing you love to do to a baby's belly where you blow out your cheeks against their belly and it makes a fart noise. 
> 
> SN: I have so much respect for prolific fic writers. How do you do it?! I can barely get out a baby one-shot within a month. Sorry Blackflashlight for this being so late! Hope you like it anyway! <3


End file.
